BIRTH RATE. AS a rule in old and long-settled countries the birth rate is high where the death rate is high. The converse, however, is not true, a number of countries having a moderate or high birth rate and at the same time a low death rate. The birth rate of female children is lower than that of males. It is usual to state these facts by computing the number of males born to every 100 or 1000 females. In general there are from 10-4 to 106 male children born to every 100 female. In the United States there are no trustworthy sta tistics of births for any large sections of the population. An imlication of the birth rate may be found by computing the number of children under five years of age reported by the census to each 1000 \vowel' between fifteen and forty-four. The children under five are selected rather than those under one, because many of the latter class are erroneously reported as one year and a smaller number are omitted by the enumerators. In 1890 there were 529 children in the United States under five years of age to each 1000 women be tween fifteen and forty-four. In 1900 the ratio had slightly declined to 518, indicating that in the United States, as elsewhere, the birth rate has slightly declined. The figures for the whites fell from 517 to 509, those for the colored, mainly negroes, from 619 to 584, indicating that the birth rate among the colored is decidedly higher than among the white, but that the decline among them has also been more rapid, so that the birth rate of the two races is approximating. The facts may be obtained separately at each census for the cities having at least 25,000 in habitants and for the rural districts. They show that the proportion of children in the rural dis tricts has been almost stationary, declining in the ten years only from 574 to 572, while the ratio in the cities has declined from 401 to 390, or sev eral times as rapidly. This indicates that the birth rate in cities having at least 25,000 inhabi tants is lower than it is elsewhere and that the difference between city and country is increasing. Among the whites the ratio of ehildren in the rural districts was the same (559) in 1890 and 1900, the whole decline for that race having come in the cities, where the proportion fell from 407 to 399. Among the colored the proportion fell
outside the cities from 672 to 651 and in the cities from 305 to 200. For the colored races, therefore, mainly the negro. the difference in birth rate between city and country is far greater than it is for the white, the proportion of negro children in cities being much less and the pro portion of negro children in country districts much greater than the corresponding proportions among the whites. In Washington, D. C.. for ex ample, there were in 1900 25 colored children to every 100 colored women between fifteen and forty-four,'but 30 white children to every 100 white women. In Maryland, outside Baltimore, there were 67 colo•ed children to 100 colored women and 53 white children to 100 white women, and in Virginia likewise, outside Rich mond and Norfolk, there were 03 colored and 61 white children to 100 women of corresponding races. The smallest proportion of children under five to 1000 women of child-bearing age is found in the District of Columbia (285), California ( 372) , Massachusett s ( 381 ) , Vermont (382), Ilhode Island (391), and New Hampshire (393), indicating what is established by the figures in detail, that the NOV England States and the States of the Pacific Coast have at present the lowest birth rate. The highest birth rate is found in North Dakota (75.1), Indian Territory (742), and Oklahoma (709). They illustrate the general fact that countries or sections which are receiving large numbers of immigrants are also those in which large additions to the popu lation through births are being made.
Whether the native population of the United States is maintaining itself by excess of births over deaths is a 11111(.11 disputed question regard ing which the statistical evidence is so meagre as to afford no certain reply. It is probable that in the New England States the native population is not maintaining itself, but it is inadmissible to generalize from conditions there to those through out the country. Indeed, the figures for the come try as a whole seem to indicate that the native population is increasing from its own loins.